Search form

You are here

New Experience for David McFadden

27Sep2013

24 Hours of Le Mans 21-22 September 2013

The Le Mans 24hour has always been a race I've waited to try, I've done a few local endurance races in South Africa and really enjoyed them, after watching the Le Mans and Bol dor on TV it's been something I was always interested in doing and until 2 weeks ago it was just a dream. I was relaxing in my Istanbul hotel room after my frst practice seesion in the FIM Supersport class when I got an email asking if I was available for Le Mans, as it happened the race was on a weekend that I was free, so I said yes and grabbed the opportunity of a lifetime.
We arrived at the Le Mans circuit on Tuesday morning at 4am after travelling back from Turkey, by 10am Tuesday morning I had my 1st session onboard the DG Sport Herock Yamaha R1 under the belt, it was my first time at the Le Mans circuit and my first time riding a Yamaha R1, form the 1st session I had a good feeling with the bike and was having a lot of fun. My mindset was to have fun if I'm going to be on the bike for 8 x 1 hour sessions.
Thursday: Qualifying 1 was held in daylight, we had good pace as a team team and qualified P3 in the Superstock class. All 3 riders were happy with the bike and confident we could push harder. I was happy to be on pace as it's a new track and new bike. Thursday night was another new experience for me, first time I rode at night, it sure took some laps to get used to riding with the lights on, unfortunately it was raining so night and wet all at once was the new experience. I soon found my rythym and was reallyhappy, and having a Blast.
Friday: Qualifying 2, we all did our best to improve but we ended qualifying P5 Superstock and P13 overall, the team was happy with this as a 24 hour race is not won or lost in the 1st corner.
Saturday: 3pm the race starts with the trademark Le Mans pit wall dash, for myself I was surprised to see how much support World Endurance racing gets in France, the grand stands were full and the crowds were going crazy, what a great feeling to actually be a part of it. After the first rider change we had a brake problem and had to pit to change the brake system, the team did a great job got us back on track only losing 1 lap but this unscheduled stop put us back in 41st place, so a big effort was reuired from all the riders to carve our way back into the sharp end of the race. The strategy was for each rider to do 33 lap stints, and by 8pm we were back up to 7th overall and 2nd Superstock, we all pulled our weight and kept pushing every session by 6am in the morning and we were still in 2nd place. Unfortunately my team mate had a crash which lost us a lap then again on his next stint, another crash that caused us to pit for 13min pushing us down to P7 in Superstock, we kept pushing hard to make up placesthen at 12pm I had a big high side after we changed the tire strategy to save on pit stop time, I had to push the bike back to the pit-box to be repaired from the crash, unfortunately we lost a lot of laps and precious time but once again the team worked hardgot us back on track by the time the clock had counted down the 24hours and the checkered flag came out we were in P10 in Superstock class.
"I have to say it was a fantastic experience, a really hard race, I learnt a lot and come away with a new found respect for the endurance races and team members, and I am ready to take on the challenge again next year, but this time a bit more prepared."